this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2024
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 78 points 5 days ago

Brag about being an Arch user (BTW.)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

Compared to Arch(-based): Accesing the latest packages. It's not impossible, especially if you go for Debian testing repos, but it's definitely extra work.

Compared to special-purpose distros (i.e. gaming, portable, high security/privacy, pen-testing): Whatever their special purpose is will usually be harder to achieve.

Compared to huge corpo distros (SUSE/Fedora and derivatives): Ease of more intricate setups and maybe some security testing.

Compared to Ubuntu: Paying a corporation to not withhold security patches from you.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (9 children)

Serious answer? XFCE doesn't support multiple monitors with different refresh rates. So that.

Some of the other answers (like Meta (aka Windows Key) not working for shortcuts) can be hacked around, but unless you switch to a DE that supports Wayland, you will never have stable multi refresh rate differences on multiple monitors.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

I'm not a fan of the xfce UX at all, and multi-monitor support still has a lot of issues (under Debian 12), but I am pretty sure having different refresh rates is possible

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

XFCE doesn’t support multiple monitors with different refresh rates.

I have an LG TV and an old Asus monitor, i'd wager their refresh rates differ but i can't confirm atm.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Maybe I'm missing something but I am running xfce4 and have per-monitor refresh rate setting.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Serious answer? XFCE doesn’t support multiple monitors with different refresh rates. So that.

That's more of a limiation because of X11. KDE and Gnome do not support different refreshrates on multiple monitors as far as I know. Its the main reason why I never used multiple monitors. But on Wayland, this issue is solved. So if XFCE is ported to Wayland, they should also get this support for free I guess.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Nothing, at all.
Some things you can't do easily in Mint, like create snapshots automatically and boot into them when something breaks.
But it's all Linux and freely available software under the hood, and the lines between configuration, customization and forking your distro are blurry.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

ship of theseus

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Acces to the AUR I guess? But not much really. If you like what you have just stick with it

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

Also I use Arch btw

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

Technically he or she has access to the AUR, but through website.^^ On a more serious note, one could install https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox and manager multiple package managers. Because each package manager is in a container, they do not interfere. I never used it, but imagine it like Flatpak, but actually using the package manager from the distribution (including access to AUR). And specific applications and programs can be "exported" to install them like a normal application, so you can access it with a single appname.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

One could compile pacman and all the build tools if they really wanted to.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 days ago

Nothing, it's all Linux

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago (4 children)

You can't have your entire system configuration in a repository of plain text files, which has lots of advantages, but it's not worth caring about unless you feel excited to get into it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

Found the other NixOS user. ;)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Technically speaking: nothing really, provided you have time and skills.

Except maybe not having access to NDA-ed binary blobs or something...

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 days ago (2 children)

You can't easilyy switch between different inages like on an atomic fedora system.

Do you have to switch now? No.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Use Pacman as your package manager, or something. Linux is Linux. If you use a mainstream distro it should be 90% similar to all other distros. You don't really have to worry about FOMO when it comes to Linux.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Everybody giving a version of this answer makes me feel better about maybe switching to Linux.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago

Waste time configuring things and troubleshooting things when your ultra custom system breaks.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Running alternatives to Systemd.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Y-you're not supposed to ask that!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

If you are using Gnome distros: you can feel exactly what it feels like getting back to working in a restricted, overhyped, overbranded environment like Windows.

If you are using Ubuntu: you can get advertising during your system's software upgrades. No, really.

If you are using Arch: you can post aroudn the internet saying you use Arch btw.

Depending on the distro, you can use some alternative software stacks, but that's mostly the backend (eg.: systemd versus openRC, Apache vs Nginx, X vs Wayland); most "desktop app" level is mostly the same for each desktop environment, is kinda the point.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

waydroid (if you don't install a wayland based de)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

With NixOS you can upgrade your entire OS and if you don't like it roll it back like nothing ever happened. You can also replicate your entire machine by copying your configs over to another computer, running the install, and then copying over any files you have in your home folder and you will have reproduced your desktop.

You can also very easily use a different version of a packaged app by adding an override in your config. This is useful if you want bleeding-edge features or if something is broken. Also every package is also a development environment, so you don't have to worry about setting up a dev environment to hack on stuff.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

File-by-file integrity check against signed checksums upstream to trivially confirm validity of deployment.

But that's probably not interesting.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

If you are speaking about stock Linux mint Xfce, with the default kernal, mesa version etc., your support for very new hardware - Arrow lake, battlemage and RDNA 4 will be imperfect. In general, very new hardware (launched within the last 6 months) will not be supported properly because the lts kernel being used was written before these products were launched

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Arrow Lake

Why would anyone curse themselves with that though?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

The ultra 7 is actually a good all rounder. Decent performance (well balanced between gaming and production workloads), good efficiency and good pricing with respect to the AMD options. AMD is of course better for pure productivity (9950x), pure gaming (7800x3d and the upcoming 9800x3d) and is better at the low end (7600, 7600x)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

In my experience, not much, but I’m a marginally functional newbie. Mint manages things for you fairly nicely and has been the best, it just works with out messing with much/anything. (At least for my hardware)

I managed to get gnome working smoothly on mint and have been happy with it. I started and returned here since I last ditched windows as a native OS.

The only thing that has made me consider distro hopping from mint is AUR on arch and gnome, though I’ve been successful so far.

Part of trying the distros that are more advanced and give you more explicit control and configuration is the sense of accomplishment and it makes you figure out how and why things work the way they do. It holistically builds your velocity in your understanding of Linux. (Or gnu whatever that nuance is).

If your machine has enough resources it is super easy to host VMs of anything you want to try. You can try them all, and it won’t cost you anything but time!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

If you feel like you need/want software from AUR you should check out Distrobox. It can run any distro on top of your installation using Docker under the hood, but it tightly integrates into your system so with little effort you can run AUR programs from your launcher as if they were natively installed on your Mint.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I love xfce. But in tried gnome w tiling shell extension and wow. But i still miss xfce , once they come over to Wayland i think I will go back 🤷

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